The merry monarch rules the garden

In the week after Hurricane Isaac, I couldn't help being amazed by the butterflies fluttering around my landscape. How in the world could something so delicate withstand the brutal winds of a hurricane? It was such a joy to see them, oblivious to the fallen branches and wind-stripped trees, seeking out open flowers and feasting on nectar.

I'm not sure why, but I always seem to focus on butterflies in late summer. Perhaps it's because they have had all summer to build up population levels, and I tend to see them more often at this point in the year. It might also be due to my fondness for monarch butterflies (and I'm certainly not alone). We definitely see more monarch butterflies as we move into fall and they begin their epic and amazing migration to Mexico.

Louisiana is en route for monarch butterflies migrating from Canada and the northern United States along the East Coast. They move through our area in the fall and can even be seen into mid-December.

These immigrants need nectar to sustain them on their long journey to Mexico. Our flower gardens, along with native fall wildflowers, help provide this nectar along the way.

Migrating monarchs will also stop and lay eggs here. These eggs hatch into caterpillars that feed voraciously on foliage and eventually turn into adult butterflies who will follow their parents to Mexico.

Pretty poison

Butterfly caterpillars are picky eaters. For monarch caterpillars, the plants must be in the genus Asclepias -- the milkweeds -- or something very closely related.

There are toxins in the sap of the milkweed, but they do not hurt the monarch caterpillars. Instead, the toxins concentrate in the caterpillars' bodies as they feed, making them inedible to birds. The caterpillars' bright colors advertise their toxicity, and they feed brazenly during the day when birds are active, because the birds will not touch them.

These toxic compounds are retained in the adult butterfly. Birds recognize the bright orange color and distinctive pattern of black veins and heed the warning to leave the butterflies alone.

I guess if I were a butterfly, I would want to be a monarch for that very reason -- or at least to look like one. And that's exactly what a monarch butterfly mimic, called the viceroy butterfly, does. It has evolved to look almost identical to the monarch butterfly. And although the viceroy butterfly is not toxic and is perfectly good to eat, birds will not try, thinking it is a monarch. Life is so amazing.

Set out a royal feast

To prepare for the coming of the monarchs from up north, and to cater to those that spend the summer here, gardeners can plant Mexican milkweed (Asclepias curassavica). Yes, we have native Louisiana milkweeds, and I do like to use native plants. But this Mexican species blooms far longer and more abundantly than native species, providing nectar not just to monarch butterflies, but many different types.

Also, it grows rapidly and provides lots of foliage for monarch caterpillars to feed on. Therefore it is the preferred milkweed to plant in our gardens, and it is the milkweed or butterfly weed you will find available at local nurseries.

The clusters of attractive flowers may be yellow, orange, red or, typically, a combination.

Actually, there is no need to focus on monarch butterflies alone. Many different types of butterflies can be encouraged to visit your garden if you have the right plants. To properly plant a butterfly garden, you need to remember the life cycle of butterflies and the four stages they pass through: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis) and adult (butterfly).

Remember, in the caterpillar stage they are avid foliage feeders, and each type of caterpillar will feed specifically only on certain plants. The female butterfly will only lay her eggs on plants that will properly nourish her offspring.

As mentioned, monarch caterpillars will only feed on milkweed. Gulf fritillary caterpillars prefer species of passion vine. The parsley worm, which grows up to be the black swallowtail, feeds on parsley, dill and fennel. Bright yellow sulfur butterflies lay their eggs on cassias, and bean leaves are the preferred food of long-tailed skipper caterpillars. The orange dog caterpillar, which feeds on citrus trees, grows up to be the beautiful giant swallowtail.

Caterpillars welcome

Larval food plants encourage butterflies to lay eggs on them, and will be consumed by caterpillars. This is one of the few situations I can think of where a gardener actually hopes a plant will be eaten by caterpillars. Needless to say, pesticides must not be used in areas dedicated to butterfly gardens.

Because butterfly caterpillars feed only on certain plants, you generally do not need to be concerned that they will attack and damage other plants in your landscape. Most of the caterpillars that damage ornamentals and vegetables are moth larva.

Adult butterflies feed primarily on nectar from flowers, and many commonly grown garden flowers are attractive to them. The more kinds of flowers you include in your garden, the better chance you have of attracting them.

Don't be disappointed if at first you don't see butterflies flocking to your garden in droves. After all, a butterfly garden is an invitation, not a command performance.

The more plants you put in, and the longer you stick with it, the more likely you are to see butterflies. After a while, spotting a butterfly will be more common. And the first time you find caterpillars on your milkweed, parsley or passion vine, the happy excitement makes it all worthwhile.

Butterfly gardens strive to attract, welcome and nurture these fascinating and lovely insects that add so much to the pleasures of gardening.

With their abundance of bright, colorful flowers, these gardens also can contribute to the beauty of the overall landscape.

DAN GILL'S MAILBOX

View full sizeJennifer Zdon / The Times-Picayune archiveJapanese magnolias are famous for blooming after hurricanes.

Although my Japanese magnolia was damaged by the storm, today I noticed the remaining undamaged branches are in full bloom. Instead of purple, they are mostly white with a hint of lavender. Isn't that a weird phenomenon?

Mary Hebert

Actually, Japanese magnolias (Magnolia x soulangeana) are famous for blooming after hurricanes. They've been doing it for generations. We think the dormant buds already on the tree are triggered to bloom when high winds remove most or all of the foliage. The flowers that bloom in late summer are much paler than when they bloom in late winter/early spring. This is due to the heat. High temperatures break down the pigments leaving the flowers mostly white. Enjoy the flowers now -- it's your tree's gift after the storm. Unfortunately, new buds will not form, and blooming now will reduce the flowering in the spring.

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We had at least 8 feet of water from Hurricane Isaac over my flower garden for a couple days. The lantanas were big, 6-by-6 feet for some of them. They all look dead, but when I started to trim them I see green stems right behind the dead foliage. Do I just cut them back to that? Will they live? My confederate jasmine on the porch railing was beautiful before, and now is looking really dead. Do I trash it or cut it back, or what?

Nancy

I cannot predict for sure what will survive or not, but take it slow and easy. Use your thumbnail to scratch the bark of various affected plants. If you see green tissue just below the bark, that's a good thing and indicates the plant is still alive. On the lantana, given you see green in the stems, it may recover. I'd leave it alone for a few weeks and see if it sprouts out, and then trim off anything that is dead (not sprouting). Or, if it was getting too big anyway, prune it back to the desired height now and see what happens. If you scratch your confederate jasmine from the top to ground level, and all you see is brown under the bark, that is not a good sign. Confederate jasmine is very sensitive to poor drainage. Cut it back hard and give it some time to produce new shoots. You can wait until as late as next spring. However, you will likely be able to tell if it is alive or dead before then.

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I appreciate your recommendations for which varieties of vegetables are best to grow in south Louisiana. But I never hear or read where one can purchase plants or seeds of these recommended varieties. I do not see them available at local nurseries. I would like to grow some pickling cucumbers this fall. Which varieties would be recommended, and where can I get seeds?

Mary

You can find seeds for just about anything on the Internet. Gardeners in the know generally end up mail-ordering vegetable seeds far more often than buying them at local nurseries. I like to browse the seed racks at nurseries, and I often pick up a few packages of seeds for some things I want to grow. But nurseries will never come close to offering the variety of seeds you can find at the mail-order seed companies.

Transplants are another matter. Unless you are knowledgeable enough and have the right facilities to grow your own transplants, you are limited to what local nurseries carry. But, they often try to carry at least some of the LSU AgCenter recommended cultivars.

To use the Internet to find seeds for a particular vegetable cultivar you want to grow, type the name of the vegetable into a search engine. For instance, you want to grow pickling cucumbers (you are a little late; these should be planted in early September). Jackson Classic is a variety of pickling cucumber recommended for Louisiana. So, you would type the following into a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo: Jackson Classic cucumber seeds. When I do that, I see several mail-order seed companies that carry seed for this cultivar, and you can mail-order seeds for this cucumber from any of them. Once you know to do this, you can find just about whatever vegetable seeds you want.